Anna Scholz Blog

The other week I got lost in London…in the middle of Trafalgar Square!

This temporary maze is another example of what London can offer to tourists and locals for free. And whilst walking among the nearly 8-feet-tall hedges, visitors have the opportunity to learn many interesting facts about the capital. What a shame it only lasted a week! How better to spend an hour on a sunny day than to get lost in a fantastical labyrinth and expand your knowledge at the same time?

The only question remains: does it remind you of the adventures of Harry Potter or the scary ending of The Shining?

–Stefanie, pattern cutter

You know we like to share our candids…

No you are not seeing a vision from the future of fashion– you are seeing Liz and Kate in the Anna Scholz studio, modeling their digital jersey pleat dresses that are available to all you forward-thinking fashionistas RIGHT NOW!

We think you’ll agree that Anna’s latest digital print packs a punch and the cool, intricate pleating skims your curves to create a fab hourglass shape.

One of our favourite bloggers, Emma, recently reviewed this dreamy digi-tastic dress for her blog called Oh, The Places You’ll Go! She deemed it slammin’!

“Curvy Girls do NOT have to adhere to rules,” Emma writes. “…If you buy into body shaming pressure and think ‘well, I’m not supposed to wear prints, or colours, or body con…’because of magazines, some idiot on TV or something else…THINK AGAIN.” She goes on to say,”… THIS dress seems to DEFY all those daft rules I dislike so much! Not only is this funky and vibrant – but it is COMFORTABLE too.”

Can I get an Amen?!

To read more of Emma’s reviews of the Anna Scholz Autumn-Winter 2010 collection, visit her blog, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Last month, our designer, Penny, and our sales manager, Darren, travelled to Düsseldorf for the CPD fashion fair to show the upcoming Spring-Summer 2011 collection. Overall, it was a good turnout. They met lots of new people and saw some old friends as well.

Here are a few teasers…

From left to right: Anna Alessio, Model; Penny, designer; Darren, sales manager; Jaq & Emma from Emma Plus in Brighton. Trying on the S/S '11 parrot print -- hot trend alert!

From May to June, various individually decorated elephants could be seen throughout the city of London.

The elephant sculptures were part of the Elephant Family charity dedicated to saving the Asian elephant from extinction in the wild.

Our colleague Liz communed with the elephants that were on display opposite Royal Albert Hall.

One elephant was covered with intricate maps — see the close-up of the area of London where the Anna Scholz studio is located!

View the Elephant Parade 2010 image gallery.

Read more about the ongoing Elephant Family charity.

I recently completed a BTEC certification in Pattern Cutting Level II.  I first became interested in pattern cutting during my work placement here at Anna Scholz. It has been a long journey and I’m still a long way from being as talented as our in-house pattern cutter, Stefanie; but I have learned a lot!

Thought I’d share a few photos of me modelling  my final project. Our assignment was to design a garment, draft a full production pattern and sew the garment.  I made a little party dress with an intersecting bodice dart (pretty fancy stuff, eh?) and side pleats that match up at the side seam.

Note of interest: the side pleats on my dress are directly inspired by one of Anna’s dresses in the upcoming Autumn-Winter 2010 collection! Anna’s crepe jersey dress with side pleats is definitely something to look forward to– we’re all in love with it here at the studio.

My design?…Well, I don’t think it will burning up any runways anytime soon. But I did enjoy making it.

–Winnie

The whole Anna Scholz team went out last night to see Sex and the City 2! We had gone to the first film as a team, so we figured we had to do it again.

Mixed reviews from us on the film, but we all enjoyed the fashion.

“I don’t let myself get bored with clothes,” says Patricia Field, the master stylist behind the magnificent fashions on both the Sex and the City TV series and films. “As long as I discover new visions, whether it’s movies or TV or just creating, I don’t get bored.”

Field recently discussed her inspirations behind the clothing in the new sequel with Hilary Moss of The Huffington Post. In the article, she walks us through the styles in a number of scenes.

“Carrie’s in her old apartment, she’s got her closet and her clothes are still in it,” Field tells Moss. “She went in her closet to put something on to go to dinner with Mr. Big and she pulled out her old Dior newspaper dress. It was just a memory moment for my fans. I chose this dress because she looked fabulous in it from the beginning and still does. It was a very famous dress that she wore in the series. Back then it was very up-to-the-minute but it has endured for years.”

“This scene is the karaoke club and I wanted to make them like The Supremes,” explains Field. “Colorful, shiny, disco-y. Charlotte is wearing vintage YSL, Samantha is wearing The Blonds, Carrie is wearing Chanel and The Blonds, and Miranda, Halston Vintage.”

“This is built on an experience of mine …[when] was I was in Cairo and I went on a camel riding around the pyramids,” Field relates. “…When I did the camel ride, I wore the hat Samantha wears but in a burgundy. A friend of mine, Horst, made it. I had an outfit on for the camel ride. I didn’t go in just a t-shirt and jeans. I was, like, ‘I’m in the desert, going to Lebanon and it’s the year 1000 and I’m on a camel.’ I made up this scenario, so when I went on my camel ride I was feeling the theatrics of it. And then it revisited me ten years later in Sex and the City.”

To read more fun insights into Field’s inspiration, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/27/patricia-field-walks-us-t_n_591320.html#s93914

A word of warning:

There is a dangerous addiction threatening commuters…

I am one of London’s thousands of people who face nearly an hour-long commute into work every morning. It is an absolute pleasure squeezing onto an already crowded train that is guaranteed to be delayed whilst you are stuck under someone’s arm pit in a pose your yoga instructor would congratulate you on.

Often, a good book is the antidote to this grueling journey. Just make sure that you choose carefully, my friends! Do not make the same mistake as me and half of the girls in the annascholz office by getting yourself entangled in The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris (the books the TV series True Blood is based on).

Once you read the first couple of chapters of the first book, Dead Until Dark, you are a goner — you will not be able to put it down again. Although it is written for a young audience (younger than yours truly, anyway) and can be a bit repetitive, the telepathic heroin, Sookie, is bright as a button. And Vampire Bill is so dark and mysterious, you will be spell-bound in no time.

Inevitably, you will speed  through the nine books of the series with a compulsion to ditch even your favourite TV show (unless it is True Blood, of course). You will find yourself telling friends you’d rather not go out tonight because you just want to get back to your book. The worst thing is that, once you have read the last page of the last book, Dead and Gone, you will start pining for Ms Harris to hurry up and publish the next one (or even better- the next nine) so you can feed your addiction some more. So please, I beg of you: do not even start this vicious cycle…Step away from the book shelf (or the Amazon link)! Now!

Note to the already afflicted: The next installment, “Dead in the Family,” will be published in June 2010… The countdown begins!

-Stefanie

Our work placements, Anne and Julia, did a trend forecasting presentation for us on Thursday. Always interesting to hear what the next big thing is going to be…

They predicted that digital prints as well as stripes and dots will dominate. They also presented the theme of “Romance” which includes soft pinks and nudes, silky fabrics and lots of ruffles and flounces.  Denim, as ever, will be strong– all different washes, coloured denim and, yes, double denim!

Check out one of their mood boards and be inspired.

Our newest work placements, Katie and Rinki, (welcome, girls!) visited the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Time to say hello…

We were both welcomed into the Anna Scholz company by all members of the team.

Anne and Julia took us under their wings and showed us the ropes.

Once the meet-and-greet with the team was over it was time to get to know the behind-the-scenes of this great fashion company.

Like Anne and Julia, we both thought the V&A was a beautiful and extravagant place.

Our highlights included passing through the different eras of the fashion and jewellery collections, admiring the changing trends from the 17^th century to the present day.

The Asia exhibition was another particular highlight — getting to see an overview of another culture.

Anne and Julia are loved by the Anna Scholz team and we hope we can live up to their expectations!

Awww, there’s plenty of room in our hearts for you two also– we’re looking forward to our time together!

Submitted by our lovely work placements, Anne and Julia– we have loved working with them these past months and will miss them when they go back to Germany…

Time to say goodbye….

It’s now our last week at Anna Scholz. We both enjoyed our work placements and learned a lot about the company and how it works.

Yesterday we went to a special place: the world’s greatest museum of art and design – the Victoria and Albert Museum. Over 4.5 million objects on 12.5 acres and 145 galleries…Unbelievable!

Our highlights were the jewellery gallery and the beautiful quilts from 1700-2010. Also very impressive was the entrance with a wonderful hall.

And don’t forget the stylish headphones Julia bought in the gift shop!

All in all we both felt very welcome at Anna Scholz and we are glad to have been members of such a nice team.

Now it’s time to introduce the new girls into the Anna Scholz “world” and to say goodbye.